#Polish #Genealogy – Haller’s Army [part one]

by C. Michael Eliasz-Solomon

Stanczyk is busy writing an article on this topic (Haller’s Army) written from an Historical / Genealogical perspective. This is not just a blog about history, but about personal history. In fact, it is a set of genealogical documents unique to Polish Genealogy.

Counting this announcement, it will be in three parts: Announcement, Background, and My Family Tree.

This announcement is to let people know about Haller’s Army, a little known facet of World War I. Actually, this army spans World War I longer than the US involvement and longer than the actual Great War itself. These men go on to serve for Poland in the Poland-Bolshevik border war from about 1918-1922 too. It is their heroic self-sacrifice that sets back Communism for another twenty years.

Why does this jester write about this little mote of history? Because it is a valuable tool for Polish genealogists to help flesh out their family tree in the first couple of decades of their ancestor’s arrival in the USA. Also because it touches on many other aspects connected to genealogy.

It will cover military from the PGSA’s Haller’s Army database and answer why Ancestry’s World War I Draft Registrations may not be the full story. It also has info on a Polish database — The List of Casualties of the Polish Army, from the years 1918-1920. Well it is obvious that the genealogical info is military in nature. But there is a component related to Ellis Island / Immigration when they return. This emigration information is sometimes further enhanced by the data found in the PGSA database actual data. Finally, you can use Historical Ethnic Newspapers to add even more details to the returning soldier’s background. You will need to search through Polish Language Newspapers for this info, so we will discuss this from my perspective of the Dziennik Polski (Detroit) newspaper. It seems that these soldiers received benefits for serving in Haller’s Army from Poland itself.

So this little obscure footnote of history can have a much greater impact upon your personal history in your family tree. Come read this series … won’t you?